Anime fans are aghast at the news that the Guangxi government has given its highest award for cultural excellence to a Chinese moral indoctrination anime widely derided as a complete rip-off of 5cm Per Second.

I think those people who do this must have thought that they are not killing people so it's okay; that kind of mentality is in a lot of people in China, and also outside China of course; see what happened and has caused the economic break-down in Europe and USA for example. To think of that the Chinese already did some great animated films in 1961 ("Havoc in Heaven"), this award for this Chinese "5 cm per Second" clone is pretty much a giant facepalming embarrassment.

Its not that they cannot be creative, their society just work in a way that forbids it.Its already like a culture, despite the confucianism in China, everyone is acting like pirates, and bold ones, to be exact.

I heard the song start up and I was like "ahh, i remember this..." then i saw the china-edits to that very song and was like...

"Pfff haaaa..."

yeah... I couldn't stop smiling and laughing on the inside, a song like that set the mood perfectly for the ending of the original movie and seeing it set to horrible china-level quality edits and imitated shot by shot just looked comical at best.

My god man, when will they learn... I almost feel sorry for them but at the same time I really dont... O_@

To anon 11:06. Nope all he said was a lie. The Japanese ARE Chinese. They fled China from a tyrannical rule. They started their own culture from Chinese and made it even better. Koreans too, they made it better.

The whole Sino race, The Korean , Chinese, Mongolian, Japanese all belong to the SAME lineage. You can't plagiarized what's yours.

Primitive stuffs like that come from China because your country is old and those things can be made with simple tools.

However, you can't compare that to plagiarism nowadays, where China is notorious for copying works that costed massive skills and intellect from the people who poured their efforts into creating them, and then produce mass copies of inferior quality for profit. That, is stealing. The economy doesn't work that way. The world doesn't go that way. China is committing crimes against every nations and people who earned their livings by their own hard works.

You completely contradicted yousrself right off. As long as something's "primitive" it's ok to plagerize? Your bias is as obvious as China's plagerism and piracy.

But the one thing that really showed how much you know of the real world, is the fact you said "The economoy doesn't work that way". It's been working that way since trade had become available to anyone in history.

Japan has been doing the exact same not that many years ago, and it sure hell isn't primitive work either. It's seems majority of people here just love sticking their heads in the ground when it comes to Japan doing or have done bad things (if the article on that Amusement Park wasn't evidence enough). Not that I'd expect less from some idiots that plague this site. Some of you Wapanese actually believe that the Japanese would get to where they are now without ever resorting to plagerism? For that matter, you same guys believe most countries got to where they are without having to resort to cheap imitations or exact copies during some time?

Look I know that China does have plagerism and piracy. But if anyone here is that stupid enough to believe that world runs on nothing but innovation and creativity needs a fist to the face to wake them up from dreamland. Kids these days...I do worry how ignorant and naive the generations are becoming now. Before I forget. Let me leave some of you hypocrites a question: How did you get your hands on some mp3's, games, movies, anime, manga and software?

Except that Japan invented 99% of the terms for words of modern and Western origin, and China stole those words. Even the words in the official name of China are stolen directly from Japanese coined terms.

Kanji weren't "adopted" by Japan. As direct descendants of original Chinese colonists, they simply kept using the language themselves. It wasn't random Chinese fisherman landing in Japan and spreading their culture to natives, but rather a single well organized colonization effort ordered by Chinese emperor after unification of China 3000 years ago. There were Japanese natives, but their culture were suppressed by the newcomers, who makes up Japanese population today.

The colonization fleet were led by people who amounts to today's equivalent of political refugees, trying to get away from the first emperor, widely regarded as a tyrant. After his empire fell apart after just one generation to revolt, no one in the mainland bothered looking for the colony to the east. Colonists were happy to be cut lose anyway.

After 3000 years, Chinese culture in the mainland has been diluted and changed through trade, while Japan was isolated from rest of the world until the 1800s. There's a reason traditional Japanese icons from kimono to paper umbrellas are basically identical to ancient Chinese versions.

Japanese are entitled to things like chopsticks, because they are the original decedents of China, purer in both blood and culture than mainland Chinese. Most han Chinese, especially northerners, carry significant portions of Mongolian and Caucasian blood.

The bad blood runs deep. Journals of some Japanese military officials revealed that invasion of China before and during WW2 has to do with this 3000 years old feud. At times, it was even used to justify war crimes, which were significantly worse than that committed by Japanese elsewhere in Asia. Whether they actually believe it or just used it as justification of landgrab for the resource hungry military state is another matter.

Had they "finished the job" US would be Japanese territory, Europe and Africa would belong to Germans.

Ultimately, it's impossible. Japan don't have the people or resources. The attrition in China was killing off the Japanese population far faster that they can reproduce. Resources used in pre-war buildup weren't being replenished, especially oil, post embargo. It was doomed from the start.

Every country will defend itself when provoked. Japan did not have the military strength to take over China back then, and certainly does not have the power to do so today. The fact China left Japan off the hook and didn't bother chasing them all the way back was an act of mercy.

please, do some research before you start talking random stuff, Latin is what paved the road for modern western language, and also, China did not steal from Japanese language, to the contrary, Kanji, as it is known now, was brought over to Japan by Chinese fishermen landing there... they adopted those characters because to them, it made sense

A very large portion of goods we consume in America are produced in China....

As for Low quality Chinese products "exploding" or of being extremely terrible in quality, basically goods they produce for internal consumption are generally of far lower quality than goods produced for exporting. This is because the cost of living in Asian countries are significantly lower than western countries (ie: i could live pretty comfortably on 1-1.5k USD monthly salary in Taiwan, but in the US, i definitely would not)

=/, so, no one cares where something originated from now... well, so be it, EVERYTHING that exists today that was a creation of mankind, can be considered an invention of the human race... it's best we don't forget all their origins...

If you can't tell the difference between adopting customs of trading partners/war enemies/colonialists/colonies and copying something wholesale and claiming it as your own, I can't help you. This is more like if The Tale of Genji turned out to be a translation of old Chinese scrolls.

Also, paper depends on your definition - wood pulp paper is from China around 200 BC. Papyrus is from Egypt around 3000 BC and is where the term "paper" originated.

You aren't making yourself look any better you little ignorant kid. Seriosly "THIS" and almost everything similar is why many call us simple people who just like anime or Japan, weeaboo's. Because we start shit like this.

Strictly speaking it wasn't plagiarism, it was cultural exchange from a bunch of dudes that decided to live in that bigass island (current Japan) rather than the continent (current China). Feel free to remain an idiot and not use your brain, though.

"Plagiarism is an important part of modern Chinese culture, so it's only natural that this anime should receive the culture prize...."

It's neither a modern nor a culture thing. Some (a lot) of people just don't buy into this whole idea of "copyright" and "intellectual property"

It's not modern because copyright and IP and the whole concept of plagiarism as we know it today is a relatively modern thing (first copyright law was 1709, 300 years ago compared to thousands of years of human history). China just didn't jump on board as other nations embraced the concept

Besides, copyright and IP wouldn't have helped China much/at all for these last few hundred years (and even now), where they have bigger problems to deal with like their people being mostly uneducated and poor

Alas, China-bashing is an important part of Sankaku culture, so it's only natural that this post would receive flames and voted down

It's hard to say anything about China as a whole, considering how many Chinese there are and how little representation the "average" Chinese citizen gets in the world's theater. What we DO get to see are the leaders (and some of the overambitious merchants) show a willingness to take shortcuts to get what the rest of the world has.

Considering that they plagiarized entire CITIES, it's easy to think that everybody in China was okay with this sort of thing, but while there were many, MANY people involved in building these places, how many of the people who built them will never get closer to an Austrian village, a Bristol neighborhood, or anywhere else in the world than these facsimiles?

IMNSHO, I think that China copies so it can bring the world to its people, rather than letting them leave and see it for themselves. If they truly didn't care about copyright, if they truly didn't understand what the fuss was all about, they'd be trying to push rip-offs to other countries, but generally, in my admittedly limited experience, it always seems to be something sold on the Chinese markets, to the Chinese (and tourists, but hey, who can keep them out?).

I've also heard recently that in the Chinese middle class there's a growing demand for authentic imported luxury items, such as (wait for it) Budweiser beer. It seems the average Chinese person DOES place some value on authenticity after all. As for flavor, now...

1.) "Countries are lead by their leaders", therefore the Chinese people approve of their leaders' actions? Last I heard, China was still technically a Communist regime, with only one party. The Chinese really have no say in who their leaders are, so it's not really fair to say their leaders are representative of them.

2.) "Greater good"? I essentially said the Chinese government copies the world and brings it back home because the leaders want to keep them from going abroad on their own. So, you're saying I'm praising them for keeping their populace under lock and key?

3.) "China is changing for the better": Compared to the China that Nixon reached out to, it is better...but let's be honest, that's not saying much. Do I think China's improving? Yes, but I also believe the current route is not the best route for improvement, nor do I believe that improvement is sustainable, not economically nor culturally.

Being clear-minded means understanding what people are trying to say to you, not deciding they're disagreeing with you and then building a bunch of straw-man arguments to debate against. All I'm saying is simply that "OMG, teh Chinese are all copyright pirates!!!1!!1!1!1" is too simple a viewpoint, and will not help any of us deal with the issue...although I'll admit it's unlikely any of us will do more to "deal with the issue" than post in internet forums. ¬_¬

Countries are led by its leaders. China is no exception. If your leader is willing to follow a short cut, how many ordinary citizen would go the other way?

You may say that China is trying to bring the world to its people, but that is not something that's simultaneously decided by the mass of people themselves. What WAS simultaneously agreed by the mass of people is that it's OK to copy things and sell them. Clear-minded ones like yourself might want to think that it's for a greater good, but most people are truly and honestly in it for the profit. That profit, however, is gained on wronging others, and with your government's approval, people wouldn't even think that they're doing something wrong.

So in the end, what I'm trying to say is, you should stop pretending that China is changing for the better, because with what's leading it, it's not.

1) He didn't say their leaders represent them rather their leaders set examples where people follow. Ie. If everybody accepts bribes wouldn't you offer or accept bribes so you can jump the line? Now change bribes to imitations, it's a whole lot cheaper and people will accept cheaper items; it's acceptance of the practice even if it's not approval.

There are Chinese critics and other disagree-ers as mentioned in the article who are not approving or not accepting the practice. So how many would disagree to the practice and how many don't care and just accept it? If the small minority can't act or are unable to remove the stain that the majority don't care/accept then the honest minority becomes the exception to the rule.

Allow me to clarify: I'm saying the ACT of plagiarism is not modern, but the concept that plagiarism being wrong is.

China didn't just suddenly started plagiarizing within the last 50 years. They, along with the rest of the world, have been plagiarizing since the discovery of fire (we aren't paying royalties to that caveman's descendants now are we?)

It's Western culture that came up with the idea that plagiarism being wrong.

I was addressing the comment that plagiarism is "modern" China "culture" thing. I never claimed they didn't. I'm just saying plagiarism - the act of copying stuff without permission/acknowledgment - is neither modern nor culture.

Oh and Anon@13:40: if someone copied my work, I'd be quite fine with it as imitation (in this case straight copying) is a form of flattery. In case you didn't know, Osamu Tezuka started off with trying to mimic Disney, while Disney's Lion King had a nice little controversy of being similar to Kimba the White Lion.

Thinking copying is such an evil thing is actually a modern WESTERN cultural thing (I'm sure nobody here EVER downloaded a single mp3, don't use cracked software, don't watch anime unless it's properly imported, embrace any and all DRM presented by game companies, etc)

what they (these Asian wannabe's) forgot is that the Japanese culture has already been deeply influenced by the Chinese many many years ago. To say China is copying Japan is like saying your son is copying you. For example, in Naruto, they use a thing called Chakra, but guess what, that's the Chinese way of thinking of Chi. so who's copying who now? there are way more examples of Japanese copying Chinese concepts. How many anime do you see featuring the concepts of Kung Fu, and Yin and Yang? If you westerners are embracing the Japanese concepts, in a way, you are embracing the Chinese, cause they are the grand daddy of it all.